Stool or leg rest

ABSTRACT

A stool or leg rest widely adjustable as to height and angle having but few simplified basic parts, i.e. 3 similar 1/4 -inch plywood platens coinciding when adjacent, their ends interjoined by hinges, two sets of plywood diecut and inwardly directed ratchet teeth made integral with the upper side of two platens to coincide with the longer edges thereof and two U-pawls nested intermediate of said ratchets when platens are adjacent, journaled on the undersides of two of the platens facing the ratchets, and gravity responsive when the leg rest is being Zextended.

United States Patent [72] Inventor William M. Emery 44 Plttsford Way, New Providence, NJ. 07974 [2]] Appl. No. 790,348 [22] Filed Jan. 10, 1969 [45] Patented May 11, 1971 [54] STOOL ,OR LEG REST 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

[52] US. Cl 108/8, 248/396, 297/439 [5 l Int. Cl A47c 7/50 [50] FieldofSearch l08/l--l0; 248/396; 297/423, 428, 438, 439, 437

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 336, 156 2/ l 886 Phrsell, Sr. 248/396 789,813 248/396 5/1905 Longley 2/1933 Mitchell et al.

2,199,895 5/1940 Sharp 108/4 2,265,105 12/1941 Farrington 108/4 FOREIGN PATENTS l ,3 [9,688 4/ l 962 France l08/l0 Primary Examiner-Francis K. Zugel Assistant Examiner-Glenn O. Finch Attorney-Smith, Michael, Bradford and Gardiner STOOL OR LEG REST REFERENCE IN ART U.S. Pat. No. 789,813, J. H. Langley, issued 1905; U.S. Pat. No. 2,579,577, G. E. Hill, issued 1951.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Obviously the structure of U.S. Pat. No. 789,813, was too complex to be practical from a productioncost and use standpoint, because although 62 years have elapsed nothing like it has successfully made the market. Its made of three members but each member is made of many parts, some steel and some wood and no member is a simpleplaten but is a complicated frame around a central void. Its four'ratchets are separate from the members and individually movable relative to the members. The capacity for elevation is only 100 percentbased on the collapsed height, due to the limitations of the separate ratchet construction and control. It could not be raisedfrom a height low enough to stow under a conventional upholstered chair to a height equivalent tothe seat'height'andthereafter provide either an up or downward slant. A foot stool such as US. Pat. No. 2,579,577 within the limits of its box base does not appear as through it could be raised very high without the ends of the pentagraph being raised beyond the limit of guide 26 and if it were madeto do so the leverage resulting would make it unable to withstand the strains of use.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION While recognition of the need may be tlie first step of invention, a solution of that needis useless if it is conc'eivedin such complex terms that it is impractical to make and-impossible to sell, especially when the item is something for thehorne for which there are already many alternatives.

An example of true invention is theprinted circuit. While I do not claim such perfection of simplification, I have created- -the ultimate'in simplification for aheight and angle adjustable foot stool which within reasonable platen dimensions such as 17 inches the leg rest can be raised from4 to l9%inches plus padding, almost five times its original height.

Basically I have reduced sucha' structure 'to three platens of L 4-inch'plywood l3-inches X l7-inches with ratchetsdiecut from the same material and made integral with two of the platens by pneumatically stapling them thereupon. The size and shape of the platens are identical and they are "hinged together. The only parts movable relative to the platens are two U-shaped one-piece wire pawls.

When collapsed, the platens coincide with the integral ratchets and have the appearance of five stacked plywood platens with their rounded sanded edges coinciding'on three sides and the brass-plated pawls lining up with the fourth side in two instances.

This simple novel arrangement provides minimum compactness, simplicity of construction, assembly and fingertip operation, also minimum costs as will beclearly seen from thefollowing description of operation, assembly, specification, claims and drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective viewof my stool when lowered,

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of my stool partially elevated or Z- extended for use as a leg rest,

'FIG. 3 is-a plan view of the stool assembly viewed from the right of FIG. 2, but stretched out to show the simplicityofconstruction-and assembly, and 7 FIG. 4-is a view similar to FIG. 3 but-taken from the left'of FIG. 2.

As shown in the drawings, my simple extendable stool and leg'rest has only three basic 84-inch plywood members 10,20 and 30, each hinged to the adjacent member by two identical hinges and 25, so that when the stool is fully lowered said three similar members stack one above the other. Hinges l5 "and 25 are of a specialized variety self-cleating under a'press into the plywood. For best assembly, the hinge is cleated between platen member 10 and a narrow strip of 16, and member to strip 26 respectively. Two pairs of ratchet strips 21 and 21', and 31 and 31 diecut from lt-inch plywood with inwardly directed ratched teeth 17 with supporting angle 18 and with-the straight outer edge 19 of said strips positioned to correspond with the long edges and sides of platens 20 and 30 respectively extending from the side of each end of strips 16,

and 26 and mounted integrally to platens 20 and 30 respectively by pneumatic stapling or adhesion. .Iournaled in two identical pairs of extruded plastic parts 12 and 22 positioned intermediate of the short ends of the undersides of platens 10 and 20 respectively (as viewed in FIG. 2) are identical U- pawls 13 and 23 respectively to'engage and disengage from said inwardly directed ratchet teeth 17 of said diecut ratchets 21 and 21, and 31 and 31 respectively. Pawls 13 and 23 are shaped so that when my stool is in its lowest position said pawls will nest in the A-inch space between strip 16 and ratchets 21 and 21' or strip 26 and ratchets 31 and 31' respectively. The squared off bottom 36 of U-pawls 13 and 23 will line up with and between the open short ends of platens l0 and 20, and 20 and 30 respectively substantially closing said ii-inch opening omamentally since the U-is preferably made of a single piece of 3/ l 6-inch brass-plated steel wire as shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4. The U-pawls are one piece of bent 3/ l6- the ratchet parts are integrally attached 'to platen members,

the appearance of my closed stool is like five V4-inch identical platens each with sanded edges and corners aligned one above the other, supported by four ball feet 32, 2-inches in diameter.

OPERATION With these simple parts of little weight and U-pawls acting under gravity, platen 10 and/or 20 can be raised with a fingertip. Since in the position shown inFIG. 2'U-pawl 23 contacts ratchet 21 and 21' in an intermediate position, platen 10 can still be inclined either up ordownward by shifting pawls to engage other ratchetteeth. Likewise by furtheranglin'g' platen 20 so thatpawl 23will be more vertical, platen 10 can be'either further angled or raised considerably higher. To lowerplaten 10 and/or 20 the pawls l3 and 23 maybe released by'hand. Since the pawls are one piece Us they may be released directly and repositioned from either side of the leg rest without any complicated release mechanism.

ASSEMBLY To further emphasize the simplicity of my three-platen construction, consider the simplicity of assembly as an illustration i.e. the few parts, their similarity for quantity production, the minimum premachining'of the parts and-the ease of jigging. Four balls 32 are positioned in a jig. Platen 30 is placed above them. Platen 20 with strip 26 previously hinged'to'ge'ther are positioned by the jig on the end of platen 30 and ratchet strips 31 and 31 are lined up by the jig between strip 26 and the other end of platen 30. Plastic parts 22 complete with U-pawl 23 and'jig located, or optionally positioned'by aligningthe flat bottom of the-U with the end of platen 30 with-the sides of the U" just inside the points of the ratched teeth. Then the balls are pneumatically stapled with long staples that pass 21' are positioned and likewise plastic journals 1-2'andU-pa'wl 13 and these parts 'afiixed and made integral with the platens as previously described. 7

In actual practice both parallel jigs would both be full so stapling would be done in both jigs at the same time with a minimum handling of pneumatic stapling tools and plywood parts. When one remembers that U-pawls l3 and 23 also plastic parts 12 and 22 and prehinged platens 20 and 30 are identical, this description of the jigging and stapling illustrates the further advantage, speed of manufacture and simplicity resulting from my new and unique triple platen construction.

Without departing from the scope of my invention it is also practical in quantity production to make all or any platen 10,20 and 30 out of a platen of sheet metal forming integrally therein ratchets l7 and 18, also forming hinges l5 and 25, also forming journals 37 therein eliminating l6 and 29. Extruded ribs cold be formed extending from the underside of said platens to provide greater strength with thinner metal.

lclaim:

l. A collapsible stool and leg rest adjustable as to height and angle comprising a top member, an intermediate member and a base member, each member being formed of a solid planar sheet of rigid material, said top member being hingedly secured to one end of said intermediate member, said base member being hingedly secured to the other end'of said intermediate member, rachet means extending along the unsecured edges on one surface of said intermediate member, first U-shaped pawl means pivotally connected to a surface of said top member and adapted to engage selectively the rachet means on said intermediate member, further rachet means extending along the unsecured edges on one surface of said base member, second U-shaped pawl means pivotally connected to the intermediate member on the surface opposite that which contains the rachet means, said second U-shaped pawl means adapted to engage selectively the rachet means on said base member, said rachet means being of such height and being positioned so as to envelop said pawl means when said stool is in collapsed condition, and legs on said base member. 

1. A collapsible stool and leg rest adjustable as to height and angle comprising a top member, an intermediate member and a base member, each member being formed of a solid planar sheet of rigid material, said top member being hingedly secured to one end of said intermediate member, said base member being hingedly secured to the other end of said intermediate member, rachet means extending along the unsecured edges on one surface of said intermediate member, first U-shaped pawl means pivotally connected to a surface of said top member and adapted to engage selectively the rachet means on said intermediate member, further rachet means extending along the unsecured edges on one surface of said base member, second U-shaped pawl means pivotally connected to the intermediate member on the surface opposite that which contains the rachet means, said second U-shaped pawl means adapted to engage selectively the rachet means on said base member, said rachet means being of such height and being positioned so as to envelop said pawl means when said stool is in collapsed condition, and legs on said base member. 